Copyright Resources
The content in your film must not violate any federal copyright law. It is strongly recommended that all content - storyline, images, and music - be original. You may not use most professionally recorded music, images, web sites, magazines, DVDs, or TV recordings except as permitted by law.

A copyrighted image, or a segment of a copyrighted song, may be used if the purpose of your film is to publish criticism about or a parody of the copyrighted work. However, such use may still be challenged in court and consequently will not be posted on the Web if the movie is selected for an award in the DU Movie Fest.

The movie you create is copyrighted, to you, from the moment it is recorded in a "fixed medium." For more about copyright laws and movie making, see the "Moving Images" section of the FACE (Friends of Active Copyright Education) web site (http://www.csusa.org/face/movim/index.htm).

Educators and students enjoy special privledges with respect to the use of copyrighted materials so that they may benefit from their intrinsic educational value. These priviledges and their limts have been summarized (pdf file) by Technology and Learning.

The University of Texas has published a guide, “Copyright Issues: Multimedia and Internet Resources: Using and Creating.” (http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/mmfruse.htm#top). While the guidelines provided are intended for the University of Texas, they are easily applied to other campuses. See also the UT System “Clearing Rights for Multimedia Work” (http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/multimed.htm).

The policies of the resources listed below vary. Check the policies carefully to assure that you follow the prescribed procedures before using the material they offer.

People looking for music to go with a short film should check the following sources:

• OpSound (http://www.opsound.org/opsound.html) “All sound files in the pool are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (a copyleft license similar to those used in the free and open source software communities) or placed in the public domain. This means you are free (and encouraged) to download works, make copies, share them, include them in other works, remix and rearrange them, and even sell them. The Attribution-ShareAlike license requires only that you attribute the works to their original authors/musicians (attribution), and that any derivative works (anything you make using the sound files) be licensed under the same license (share alike).”
• Common Content web site (http://commoncontent.org/) where artwork, music, and other content that is available for re-use is cataloged.
• The original Creative Commons web site is also highly recommended (http://creativecommons.org/).

If you are using a Macintosh and iMovie, also check out iLife/Garage Band (http://www.apple.com/ilife/)

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"Resources on Copyrights", source: Drake University